Hear #MeToo in India News, Social Media, and Anti-Rape and Sexual Harassment Activism

The book examines the role media platforms play in anti-rape and sexual harassment activism in India. Including 75 interviews with feminist activists and journalists working across India, it proposes a framework of agenda-building and establishes a theoretical framework to examine media coverage of issues in the digitally emerging Global South, including the safety of women in reporting.

Sample

"As I identified earlier, much of the activism is sparked by a personal experience, so female journalists, having faced sexual harassment at work comparatively more than male journalists, often see themselves as more involved in the interweaving role of activism and journalism (N. Khan, 2018). …Most hashtag movements tend to fizzle out after the initial successful visibility, resulting in normalizing the issue of sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace. The accused are back in the workplace, and the activists have a difficult time keeping the agenda in line."

Main Findings

Women journalists in newsrooms often face sexual harassment in their workplaces either by colleagues or by sources or both. Women journalists were forced to leave newsrooms and the profession. the role of newsrooms as organizations and the fourth estate in #MetooIndia and sexual harassment. There is no doubt that there was restrained coverage of the movement, both qualitatively and quantitatively, particularly as far as Indian-language newspapers are concerned. Initially, the mainstream media had a muted response because survivors had accused many of the newsrooms of turning a blind eye to the problem. In response to the pressure from social media citizens and to save their brand, they have churned out many editorials and articles focused on their position. Whatever was reported in the discussion on sexual harassment hovered from safe workplace conditions to a backlash against women and male supervisors avoiding mentoring female team members. The focus of the discussion changed from a structural issue to individual responsibility and concern. impact of social media on news media coverage of rape and the combined influence of media platforms on anti-rape feminist activism before and after the global #Metoo and #MetooIndia movements.

Policy recommendations/implications

Based on findings and analysis, I offer this concept of interdependent agenda building, which emphasizes on the interdependent association between social media networks and mainstream mass media having the ability to build public agenda in digitally emerging spaces. Culturally, economically, politically, and digitally, India is one of the most diverse countries in the world so how social media and news media react to the activism around rape and sexual assault is significant. This helped to bring into focus the issues of safety and sexual harassment of women journalists, especially in smaller newsrooms with limited resources. I also talk about the intersectionality of class, caste, religion, and location. The impact of the type of newsroom, location of newsrooms, and journalists made a lot of difference for women journalists and their safety. Much of the #MetooIndia is sparked by personal experiences of female journalists, having faced sexual harassment at work comparatively more than male journalists, who saw themselves as more involved in the interweaving role of activist and journalist. This also happened because the mainstream media had a muted response because survivors had accused many of the newsrooms of turning a blind eye to the problem. In response to the pressure from social media citizens and to save their brand, they have churned out many editorials and articles focused on their position. Whatever was reported in the discussion on sexual harassment hovered from safe workplace conditions to a backlash against women and male supervisors avoiding mentoring female team members. The focus of the discussion changed from a structural issue to individual responsibility and concern. But the interdependent role of both news and social media would have integrated made the gaps in the safety of women journalists more visible.

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I cannot share the book due to copyright restrictions. I can share a brief version in a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INRWyU6KR04